THE absence of conventional fund raising activities in Christian Science churches and societies does not mean that the financial well-being of these branch church organizations is ignored. On the contrary, much consecrated and prayerful work is devoted by church members to the wise and financially sound management of the business affairs of their respective branches. Directions concerning this are found in the Church Manual by Mrs. Eddy, who writes (Art. XXIV, Sect. 5), "God requires wisdom, economy, and brotherly love to characterize all the proceedings of the members of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist."
Christian Scientists are taught to recognize that any seeming lack in church affairs is a manifestation of the same error responsible for lack, disease, or discord in individual human experiences. Error seems to take many different forms; but all error, no matter how disguised, has the same fictitious origin.
The Bible says of God (Col. 1:16), "By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible"; and it tells us (Gen. 1:31), "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Since all that God made was good and since He made all that was made, it follows that error, which is by its very nature the opposite of good, has no origin. Error's only seeming existence is in mortal consciousness; and once destroyed there, it is no longer manifested in one's experience.
